Bitmap is an open-source standard protocol proposed by @blockamoto on June 13, 2023, based on the ordinals. Its purpose is to establish a consensus on metaverse land on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitmap whitepaper can be found at https://gitbook.bitmap.land. This standard defines ownership for each Bitcoin block, allowing indexers or platforms to visualize and map block data into distinct 3D spaces, creating pieces of metaverse land. For example, according to blockamoto’s suggestion, the value data contained in a block is defined as the land area, and vbytes equal the depth of the land. Since each block contains different data (block number, transaction amount, number of transactions), it ultimately generates lands with various characteristics.

Image source: MagicEden

Note: The original Bitcoin blockchain doesn’t inherently possess a concept that allows an individual to own a block’s rights. Bitmap defines block ownership within its own ecosystem for Bitmap holders, which is the core of Bitmap. Based on this unchanging core, indexers or projects developed on Bitmap can interpret block data according to their own rules, mapping various metaverse scenarios and developing different functionalities for Bitmap holders.

For instance, in addition to the commonly used 2D plane rendering, the Bitmap community also frequently employs 3D stereoscopic rendering to view properties of the land like height and area.

https://mscribe.io/

Some developers have even built interactive real-world applications. More examples will be detailed in the later section on application scenarios.

A community member of Bitmap, BradOleksy, tried to render Bitmap into a three-dimensional world using the Unreal Engine.

Thus, the block numbers in Bitmap are essentially similar to DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers). Owning a registered Bitmap block enables simultaneous login to multiple different project’s metaverses. One might ask, why would everyone recognize Bitmap’s standard? It depends on the community consensus regarding this standard, as well as the scale of the ecosystem. In early November, the number of holder addresses for Bitmap reached 25,000, surpassing Sandbox as the metaverse project with the most holders.

In terms of total supply and the initial distribution process:

During the genesis issuance phase, the total mintable amount of Bitmap was equivalent to the Bitcoin block height. When the Bitmap standard was released, there were already over 700,000 historical blocks. For these historical blocks, users could freely choose to engrave them by paying the miner’s fee. Within two months of the founder’s announcement, over 700,000 historical blocks had been registered.

The total supply of Bitmap is linked to the current block of Bitcoin, which produces approximately one block every ten minutes. Thus, theoretically, the total supply is infinite. Each time a new Bitcoin block is produced, a new registrable Bitmap (based on the rule that only engravings initiated after the block is mined are valid) is created. This follows a first-come-first-served principle, allowing anyone to engrave the block number. Bitmap uses a plain text ordinals inscription method to secure the ownership of these blocks. Therefore, 144 new blocks are mined and available for registration each day. Currently, mainstream NFT exchanges also update the total supply of BITMAP in real-time.

Unclaimed Block Statistics: https://www.bitmap.wtf/

However, it’s important to note that with the growing popularity of Bitmap, more and more users are mining new bitmaps. Ensuring successful registration has become a challenging task. Currently, several mining pools are also involved in the mining of Bitmap land.

How the Secondary Market Prices Bitmap

Based on the current block height, the total circulation of Bitmap is approximately 820,000. So, what attributes of Bitmap are more sought after in the secondary market?

At present, both major NFT platforms for Ordinals have launched Bitmap trading:

https://magiceden.io/ordinals/marketplace/bitmap

https://ordinalswallet.com/collection/bitmap

The following categories are particularly popular:

Number Classification

The earlier the number, such as the first 1,000, e.g., 1.Bitmap-1000.bitmap.

Easy to remember numbers, such as 11111.bitmap, 888.bitmap, similar to the ENS domain’s 999club or sub10k club.

Palindromes - Blocks that read the same forwards and backwards (e.g., 123321.bitmap or 1221.bitmap).

Bitmap’s Punk

Some block data visualizations generate land that closely resembles Cryptopunk.
These are further divided into different types of punks, which can be seen in the NFT exchanges. The owners of these special bitmaps often establish their own clubs.

1. Blocks of Significant Transactions

Some blocks contain important historical events, such as the block mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pizza transaction block, or the block related to the Mentougou incident.

Bitmap’s Application Scenarios and the Current Status of its Ecosystem Projects

Beyond secondary market trading, what is more crucial for a project’s sustainability is the scale of its ecosystem development. Similarly, the long-term value of each bitmap is still dependent on market demand. Over the past few months, the infrastructure of the bitmap ecosystem has gradually improved, and currently, there are over a hundred exploratory projects within the bitmap ecosystem, already showing significant growth.

The following website lists projects that have been organically included by the community:

https://bitmap-directory.gitbook.io/bitmap.directory/directory/explorers-and-data

Infrastructure

Visualization Rendering:

https://mscribe.io/

bitlords.land

Data Dashboard: https://geniidata.com/user/poshi/ordinals-bitmap-index

Bitmap Explorer：https://bitmap.rcsv.io

Bitmap.game

Bitmap.game is a bitmap resource manager developed by the Recursiverse team.

Here, bitmap holders can acquire their own space. They can also purchase corresponding assets at brc420.io to decorate their space.

In the room, you can voice chat with friends, and a trading function has been launched, allowing users to list and sell their NFTs on their own land.

BRC-420: An Asset Protocol Based on Bitmap

Recursiverse is one of the most outstanding development teams in the bitmap ecosystem. The team is attempting to build a BTC expansion solution based on Bitmap. The brc420 asset protocol standard they proposed has been adopted by several teams within the bitmap ecosystem.

BRC-420 Whitepaper: BRC-420 Whitepaper

The BRC-420 protocol involves recursively combining multiple inscriptions into a complex inscription. These can range from a character image or pet to an entire game script, virtual machine, or even AI models, which can be combined into on-chain assets for developers to purchase or pay royalties. Currently, over a hundred teams have issued assets on BRC-420, including game characters, game DLCs, HTML scripts, music, videos, etc. Currently, RCSV’s Bitmap browser accounts for over 95% of traffic, but any team can develop a client to run assets on BRC-420.

BRC-420 Marketplace: BRC-420 Marketplace

Other attempts to explore Bitmap

At present, most bitmap projects are still in the exploration and development stage. In this article we will also list a few interesting cases.

Note: This article only collects statistics. Some projects may involve asset transactions. This article does not contain any investment advice.

Inscribed.space

Pixel 3D Universe

BitWorld

Games similar to minecraft style

https://luminex.io/bitworld

xspectar

https://twitter.com/xspectar

Community member BradOleksy uses the Bitmap world game experiment rendered by Unreal Engine

https://twitter.com/BradOleksy/status/1721766161925247123

In addition to a flat universe, community members have proposed the concept of a spherical universe.

3D mapping experiment done by @rgen_art user

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